HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

 

HHS Designation of Additional Members of the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees from 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Livermore, California
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

Page 2

I. Designation 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, designate the class 

of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to the Special Exposure 

Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q.

 _April 5, 2010_______ _[Signature on file]________

Date Kathleen Sebelius

II. Employee Class Definition

All employees of the Department of Energy, its predecessor 

agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who 

worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 

Livermore, California from January 1, 1950 through December 

31, 1973, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 

work days, occurring either solely under this employment or in 

combination with work days within the parameters established 

for one or more other classes of employees in the Special 

Exposure Cohort. 

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the 

Secretary has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

(Board) has recommended, that

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the 

class received; and

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have 

endangered the health of members of the class.

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations 

to estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, 

the rule states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the 

maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are 

reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient 

accuracy if NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate.

The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on March 8, 

2010. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

Page 3

IV. Designation Findings

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

• NIOSH lacks sufficient information, which includes biological monitoring data, 

sufficient air monitoring information, or sufficient process and radiological source 

information, to allow it to estimate with sufficient accuracy the potential internal 

exposures to mixed fission and/or activation product radionuclides to which the 

proposed class may have been subjected.

• NIOSH finds that it is likely feasible to reconstruct occupational medical dose for 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) workers with sufficient 

accuracy. 

• There is currently a class of LLNL workers associated with a previous NIOSH 

evaluation of SEC petition SEC-00092: 

Employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor 

agencies, and DOE contractors or subcontractors who were monitored for 

radiation exposure while working at the Lawrence Livermore National 

Laboratory from January 1, 1950 through December 31, 1973, for a 

number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days or in 

combination with work days within the parameters established for one or 

more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. 

This class was added to the SEC effective April 2, 2008. This class was based 

on the NIOSH determination at that time, with the information then available, that 

all workers with the potential for radiation exposures during the proposed SEC 

class time period were included in the external dose monitoring program, and 

that unmonitored workers had no potential for radiation exposures.

• In the course of NIOSH’s ongoing dose reconstruction and continued data 

capture efforts, NIOSH has determined that the monitoring records are not 

complete for some LLNL workers who may have been exposed to fission and 

activation product radionuclides during the period from January 1, 1950 through 

December 31, 1973. Therefore, NIOSH has determined that the existence, or 

nonexistence, of LLNL monitoring records is not always an accurate indicator of 

a worker’s potential for radiation exposure during the period from January 1, 

1950 through December 31, 1973. Accordingly, NIOSH has also determined that 

it is necessary to remove the “... who were monitored ...” criterion from the 

description of the LLNL SEC class and, therefore, to expand the SEC class 

definition implemented in SEC-00092 to include all employees of DOE, its 

predecessor agencies, and their contractors and subcontractors who worked at 

LLNL during the specified time period. 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

Page 4

• Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is insufficient 

information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of 

cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been 

incurred under plausible circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate.

• The Board concurred with the NIOSH evaluation and recommended the 

proposed class for addition to the SEC.

• Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct radiation 

doses for the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal and external 

monitoring data that may become available (and that can be interpreted using 

existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or procedures) for an individual 

claim. Dose reconstructions for individuals employed at LLNL during the period 

from January 1, 1950 through December 31, 1973, but who do not qualify for 

inclusion in the SEC, may be performed using these data as appropriate.

 Health Endangerment

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of 

employees covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below.

(1) Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), NIOSH established that there is a 

reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the 

health of members of the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), NIOSH 

specified a minimum duration of employment to satisfy this health 

endangerment criterion as “having been employed for a number of work days 

aggregating at least 250 work days within the parameters established for this 

class or in combination with work days within the parameters (excluding 

aggregate work day requirements) established for one or more other classes 

of employees in the Cohort.”

(2) NIOSH did not identify any evidence from the petitioners or from other 

resources that would establish that the class was exposed to radiation during 

a discrete incident likely to have involved exceptionally high-level exposures, 

such as a nuclear criticality incident, as defined under 42 C.F.R. § 

83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3) The Board concurred with NIOSH’s finding that the health of the class may 

have been endangered and defined the class according to the 250-work day 

requirement specified under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii). 
HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

Page 5

V. Effect and Effective Date of Designation

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the 

SEC for review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 

7384q(c)(2)(A), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in 

scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal

Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 

U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 days after the date of 

this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise provides.”

VI. Administrative Review of Designation

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report 

may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 

83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class 

of employees covered by this designation, the Secretary would transmit a 

supplementary report to Congress providing the expanded employee class definition 

and the criteria and findings on which the decision was based.